Will Davis - Copyright 2010. Nuclear energy news, insight and analysis. Coverage of events world wide, including new plant construction, operation of plants now in service, and shutdown and decommissioning of plants. APR emphasizes the technology of nuclear energy, as well as the history of the development of that technology. Your #1 nuclear energy source!

APR: your source for nuclear news and analysis since April 16, 2010

Friday, April 16, 2010

Introduction and example

Welcome to what might well prove to be the most unlikely blog on the net- one that combines a love of mechanical typewriters and a love of nuclear energy. My name is Will Davis, and I'm well versed in both fields. I'll be using this blog to both relate experiences and impressions from the collecting field related to typewriters, and also (and perhaps far more importantly) relate my views on present and future developments in the field of nuclear energy.

Recently, President Obama clearly laid out plans to spur funding for new nuclear plant construction, which has effectively been on hiatus since 1978. Yes, I said 1978- the year the flood of new orders for nuclear plants in the US shut off. This is indeed prior to the accident at TMI-2 (that's Three Mile Island No. 2, for those not in on the lingo) and this means that the TMI-2 incident DIDN'T temporarily kill off the nuclear power growth in the US. (First post and one fallacy already knocked down; many, many more to follow.) This is good news; we've needed this for a long time, and if, for example, we're really expecting hydrogen-powered cars to be a fixture then we'll need nuclear energy to dissociate water to get that hydrogen. Sure, the net energy INPUT will exceed any efficiency advantage that a H2-powered car would show over gas or diesel (anyone figured out how to modify the grid to support the nationwide refrigeration plants needed to keep all that hydrogen at minus 423F to keep it a liquid?) but, hey, that's not where the nation's looking right now.

I'll be going into lots of detail on various news items in the immediate future. I'll also provide lighter material for those technologically minded folks that appreciate fine old writing machines (or in some cases, really junky typewriters.) Stay tuned for what I hope will be a long run!